Germany's GDL train drivers' trade union is planning a strike that will run for almost a full week starting in the early hours of Wednesday. The union said it rejected Deutsche Bahn's latest "supposedly improved" offer.Germany's GDL trade union, whose members are mostly train drivers but also include other rail network employees, announced a six-day strike in the early hours of Monday morning.

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The planned industrial action will commence at 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning — and a few hours earlier for freight services — and continue until 6 p.m. the following Monday.

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Although it's the latest in a series of GDL strikes, the threatened six-day action is set to last longer than those that have come before.

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) had tried to tempt the union back to the negotiating table with a new offer on pay and conditions on Friday, which the GDL said it was rejecting.

"With its third and supposedly improved offer, Deutsche Bahn has again shown that it is continuing its previous course of non-compliance and confrontation — there's no trace of a willingness to reconcile," the GDL said in its press release.

Fourth strike in current dispute

The new strike would be the fourth in the current row over pay between DB and the GDL.

The GDL staged two large warning strikes late in 2023, and then another earlier in January that lasted three days and led to drastic reductions in available services.

DB even tried and failed to stop the strikes earlier this month via a court injunction.

Deutsche Bahn's head of personnel Martin Seiler on Friday had criticized the GDL, arguing that it was using strikes not as a last resort, but as a means of self-promotion.

This is a developing story. More to follow.

msh/rm (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 22, 2024 08:20 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).